No! It makes you say, oh my gosh, I didn’t see that, thank you for showing me!
Seeing ourselves more truthfully and accurately begins to make us have no confidence in ourselves. It’s a good thing!
Church Bashing
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No! It makes you say, oh my gosh, I didn’t see that, thank you for showing me!
Seeing ourselves more truthfully and accurately begins to make us have no confidence in ourselves. It’s a good thing!
It’s like the old saint who said, to know what Gods will is, it’s only necessary to look at your circumstances.
Now that is extreme faith! It’s to REALLY believe and trust Him when He says He guides our steps.
We tend to think He’s only guiding our steps when we LIKE what’s happening.
So you see our will is all tangled up in with our trust. How He straightens it all out at all is a great mystery!
Now that is extreme faith! It’s to REALLY believe and trust Him when He says He guides our steps.
We tend to think He’s only guiding our steps when we LIKE what’s happening.
So you see our will is all tangled up in with our trust. How He straightens it all out at all is a great mystery!
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Yes...I get it, took me a long time to realize that not everything IS His will when it comes to certain people who will take advantage so, IOW - ya shouldn't open your home to just "anybody"... and yes, I know He'll use that too but not to the point of continually going through life as a door matt. Discernment was learned with that one, just took bout 11 years but, lesson learned.
I can remember one time seeing someone pulling up with a woman neither of us knew, only that she just came to Buffalo from N.O. I had met her once at another's home and just did not feel her an honest person at all. So my "friend" asked if she could stay just for the night...initially when I saw them from my window...I wanted to lock my door and run in the back cause I saw the writing on the wall but, did not soooo, just another 8 months of being used and no rent. When I saw all the suitcases being loaded into my house, I knew it would not be for "just one night". I don't believe it was God's will. She said she was a Christian like SO many do yet she called herself a "Light Bearer" Please
ore like a darkness bearer. Loved her crystals and "special rocks with healing powers" She didn't like when I told her I did not believe a rock, a creation would heal her and that ONLY God could do that. She was a drunk, broke her knee on my steps. Yeah, that was fun.Anyhow I know that we will not grow an inch until we go through these things He sends us, and I think it really important to know if they come from God or not, discernment. JMOaE
Unbelievers are in darkness so that everything that is really good [God only is good] is absolutely blinding to them.
Believers have at least moved up into twilight places with some definite Light but a whole lot of shadows all around covering and/or blocking their closer access to God and His Way.
As the believer leans heavily on God then comes that bright Light of which you @Nancy speak focuses [shines] on more places in need of either cleaning up or elimination. How does God see it?
"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee." Psalm 139:11-12
God has truly perfect vision... but we...? We are too often still seeing as through a glass darkly. Help us dear Lord!
Yes...I get it, took me a long time to realize that not everything IS His will when it comes to certain people who will take advantage so, IOW - ya shouldn't open your home to just "anybody"... and yes, I know He'll use that too but not to the point of continually going through life as a door matt. Discernment was learned with that one, just took bout 11 years but, lesson learned.
I can remember one time seeing someone pulling up with a woman neither of us knew, only that she just came to Buffalo from N.O. I had met her once at another's home and just did not feel her an honest person at all. So my "friend" asked if she could stay just for the night...initially when I saw them from my window...I wanted to lock my door and run in the back cause I saw the writing on the wall but, did not soooo, just another 8 months of being used and no rent. When I saw all the suitcases being loaded into my house, I knew it would not be for "just one night". I don't believe it was God's will. She said she was a Christian like SO many do yet she called herself a "Light Bearer" Please
Anyhow I know that we will not grow an inch until we go through these things He sends us, and I think it really important to know if they come from God or not, discernment. JMOaE
Well…actually…it doesn’t really matter!
You know why? Because God works all things to good for those who love Him and are called by Him.
For instance, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. That was really, really rank! The despicable ness cannot be overstated, But what they meant for harm God worked for good - saving many people alive!
Yes!
Many times in many churches my wife suffered this kind of treatment from people "of God" [?] and as her spouse, I suffered it with her. The good thing was what God taught us by and through those experiences. They were certainly painful at the time.And, yes, I have heard it all too, lol. "You just don't have the faith" You are this/that. Get's old but is expected
Easy there sister! I am an old tongue talker from way back, LOL.Love those who think you are not even saved unless you speak gobbly gook! (sry tongue speakers, LOVE YOU
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" Rom 8:28
Give God the glory!
Yes, God is faithful!
Lol, that's why I said "Sry" after,
I've nothing against them as, one of my brothers and one of my sisters speak in tongues.I must ask John, what did you learn through those things your wife and yourself experienced? To not keep your eyes on others? Do not compare? <---now that's dangerous!
In Him my brother!
How did Jesus treat Judas Iscariot even when he knew the man was going to betray him?
I learned for one thing that sometimes I really needed to bite my tongue.Lol, that's why I said "Sry" after,
I must ask John, what did you learn through those things your wife and yourself experienced? To not keep your eyes on others? Do not compare? <---now that's dangerous!
In Him my brother!
I learned that I must love people who seem to have no mercy at all for others, the last which may include me or people I do love.
I also learned that God does have times to heal and times to allow the affliction/sickness/pain to continue.
What is our vision of God and the things of God? How complete or incomplete is it?
I think we’ve all lived through an indiscriminate “trying to help” after we meet God and getting beat up for it. If we see no other good from it (and we very possibly DONT see it all) we at least can see we learned to not be so naive as to believe everything someone says about themselves.
Good question brother,
Yet, are we to just allow any and all to use us? Take advantage of us all the time? Got to draw the line somewhere or you'd be out of house and home. If my red flag goes up now, it is high and very bright! Will never again let someone who tries to make "fast friends" in again to my home. If the discernment I prayed for for years was answered (I think it was) then, there will be no hesitation on my part with something like that to simply say, "no, I'm sorry but, I am better alone". Off they will go to someone else. The person dropped at my house was too proud to go to The City Mission! And, it is NICE now...private rooms, 3 squares, sermons daily, all kinds of folks to help them with finding jobs, places to live and such. Some just want someone else to do ALL the work while they sit on their duff, and I'm not having any of that ever again. The bible say's, you don't work then you don't eat. We are Christians, not doormats and, it's how we can be taken advantage of so easily I think
Amen! Spot on sissy!!! This is where the discernment came in, I already had red flags with these people but, dismissed them as Satan trying to stop me from helping someone God want's me to help. I have no idea what I learned through over 11 years of it except to "TRUST NO MAN".
Be as shrewd as snakes and as harmless as doves.
I once gave a man 40.00 (the last money I had) to go buy food for his daughter. I saw him later passed out on the sidewalk with a broken bottle beside him and had to call for an ambulance. I gave him money that could have killed him because he drank himself into oblivion with the money.
Since then, I offer to take them into the store beside my shop and get them food or if they don’t “have a daughter” and ask for money for food, I either offer to share what I’ve brought for me or pay for some groceries. And I’m poor, so it is often lunch meat, Mayo and a loaf of bread! When you offer to go next door and pay for food or offer to share your lunch, they usually say no thanks.
And giving them a gift card to the Burger King in the shopping center doesn’t work either. A $20 gift card is sold for $5 or $10 and there’s their booze. Nope, you have to lock your door and go get the food for them.
I once gave a man 40.00 (the last money I had) to go buy food for his daughter. I saw him later passed out on the sidewalk with a broken bottle beside him and had to call for an ambulance. I gave him money that could have killed him because he drank himself into oblivion with the money.
Since then, I offer to take them into the store beside my shop and get them food or if they don’t “have a daughter” and ask for money for food, I either offer to share what I’ve brought for me or pay for some groceries. And I’m poor, so it is often lunch meat, Mayo and a loaf of bread! When you offer to go next door and pay for food or offer to share your lunch, they usually say no thanks.
And giving them a gift card to the Burger King in the shopping center doesn’t work either. A $20 gift card is sold for $5 or $10 and there’s their booze. Nope, you have to lock your door and go get the food for them.
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Yes, agreed but it still does make one hate themselves even more! It IS necessary and shows that the Holy Spirit is indeed working within, yeah, a very good thing! I have zero confidence in myself as, my choices have been so bad in life, I trust Him. When His light shines in all the corners of our hearts, no it is not pleasant, and not meant to be. From there, it is immediate repentance but, still, the sins of the past can linger even though we have been forgiven. It's bitter sweet to me.
Then, seeking His strength to overcome those tough ones...
Last Spring, my daughter called me early in the morning on her way to work for assistance with a flat tire less than a mile from where I live. We had had some nice weather after a record-breaking cold spell, so I got up and pulled on some clothes to go out to her. But... I put on only a light sweatshirt thinking about the nice balmy day we had the previous day. I cannot change tires anymore, but I was able to wait for the tire service fellow while my daughter caught a ride to work. The light sweatshirt was very inadequate. It was extremely cold for me, and the wind was blowing briskly.
I caught pneumonia from my time outside that morning and had trouble with that for quite a while.
Was it all bad? That remains to be seen. As a follow-up on the pneumonia, they later took an X-ray. No more pneumonia, but they found a nodule in one lung. That story continues...
Without the cold morning and the pneumonia, likely, I still would not know about the nodule, and they would not be running all of the tests they are. What is God's will in all of this?
Hmmm, I don't think it was a coincidence, just doesn't sit well...God had His hand in that I would say.
Has there been any more news on that nodule btw?
And then there’s the mother in the hospital and I’m trying to get there but I ran out of gas, ya got $5? Tell them you have a gas can and will be right back with gas and then it’s, oh but she’s in such and such hospital and that won’t be enough to get me there. So I say, no but I can then follow you to the gas station and fill your tank up. They just walk away at that point.
Brakelite
Well-Known Member
Those circumstances however are limited to our peace. There was a time a led my family away from God's will. Outwardly, looking at our circumstances one wouldn't know. Inwardly was another matter entirely.It’s like the old saint who said, to know what Gods will is, it’s only necessary to look at your circumstances.
Now that is extreme faith! It’s to REALLY believe and trust Him when He says He guides our steps.
We tend to think He’s only guiding our steps when we LIKE what’s happening.
So you see our will is all tangled up in with our trust. How He straightens it all out at all is a great mystery!
Lambano
Well-Known Member
There's actually a 3rd and a 4th party that I'm talking about. Sorry to have confused you.
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